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John George Thomas Merritt. Died 28th October 1916
John was born in 1896 in Reading to father, William and mother Beatrice. He was the first born and had five siblings, two brothers and three sisters By the age of 14, John had become a Core Boy at an iron foundary with his father. His parents lived at 7 Wellington Place, Wokingham in 1911.
It is possible John joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment before the war as the 2nd Battalion was part of Britain’s ‘regular’ standing army although he could have been drafted in later to make up for the lost numbers. By 1916 he had been killed on the 28th October 1916, during the last days of the Battle of the Somme. The 2nd had just been involved in some particularly vicious exchanges and Major Hanbury Sparrow describes its aftermath as they began to withdraw:
“Most of all, for the men were tired out before they started. It was impossible to move except on the duckboard tracks, and the weary trudge went on throughout the night. On
either side of the track exhausted men of the incoming division were lying slowly drowning in the mud. What could you do except give them the contents of your flask? For you must push on, push on, with your men and get them to shelter somehow before they too collapse. In the morning it was as if an epidemic of jaundice had broken out. The battalion was yellow with exhaustion. Two days later we heard the incoming troops had taken
Zenith trench with the loss of ten men. Zenith trench! It was the Nadir of the Division!”
Name: MERRITT, JOHN GEORGE THOMAS
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Royal Berkshire Regiment Unit Text: 2nd Battalion.
Age:20
Date of Death: 28/10/1916
Service No:17986
Additional information:Son of Mr. W. I. Merritt, of 7, Wellington Place, Wokingham, Berks.
Grave/Memorial Reference:Pier and Face 11 D. Memorial: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
7, Wellington Place, Wokingham, Berks.